The Librarian Of Auschwitz Quotes
"In Auschwitz, human life has so little value that no one is shot anymore; a bullet is more valuable than a human being."
"Each time someone stops to tell a story and children listen, a school has been established."
"Books are extremely dangerous; they make people think."
"The strongest athlete isn’t the one who finishes first. The strongest athlete is the one who gets up again every time he falls."
"If you don’t fight for victory, then don’t cry when you lose!"
"Sometimes, no matter how much you want it, being the fastest isn’t an option, because your legs aren’t as long or your lungs as large. But you can always choose to be the strongest."
"Brave people are not the ones who aren’t afraid. Those are reckless people who ignore the risk; they put themselves and others in danger. Brave people are the ones who know the risk—whose legs shake, but who carry on."
"You chew on fear, and you swallow it. And you carry on."
"The difference between living with the lightbulb switched off or on is like lighting up a dark cave with a match or a spotlight."
"The story of our world is a story that is still very imperfectly known."
"This difference between the reptile world and the world of our human minds is one our sympathies seem unable to pass."
"If H. G. Wells were to find out that he's next to Sigmund Freud, he'd be angry with you."
"As long as they keep on laughing, all is not lost."
"God silenced our thoughts so that only we could hear them."
"People get angry with me whenever I say what I think."
"Fredy Hirsch comes to attention with a martial click of his heels."
"He’s the one who authorized the delivery to Block Thirty-One of the food parcels sent to dead prisoners."
"Hatred is unknown to him ... but the awful thing is that he doesn’t know compassion, either."
"He’s told me some things and then I’ve found out others. …"
"If I had God in front of me, I’d tell him what I thought of him and his twisted sense of compassion."
"We’re soldiers, Edita. Don’t believe those who say we’re bringing up the rear and then put down their arms. It’s war, and each of us has our own front line. This one is ours, and we must fight to the end."
"They’re all so fragile. … And then she feels insignificant and unexpectedly weak."
"Anyone who sees Pestek walking with his proud swagger, his cap pulled down, and his hands behind his back would think he was indestructible. But in Auschwitz, little is what it seems."
"She took hold of one of the blond curls falling over her eyes and unrolled it until it was long enough for her to be able to chew on it."
"Then things started to get complicated. Fistfights became fights with chains, and then came the guns."
"It all seems like madness to me, and he worries that this reaction is starting to be noticed."
"It feels good to inspire fear in others, and it’s easy to get used to doing it."
"You can’t eat it.… He squeezes his hand shut so tightly you can hear the crunch of the little music box, which he’s crushed as if it were a sparrow."
"How can something that no longer exists be so heavy? How can emptiness have weight?"
"A book is like a trapdoor that leads to a secret attic: You can open it and go inside. And your world is different."
"In a place like Auschwitz, where everything is designed to make you cry, a smile is an act of defiance."
"God sows and the devil reaps with a scythe that cuts down everything."
"You are what you dream, Ota says to himself."
"The last resort for those who didn’t want to go to the front line was military prison."
"These are some of the bad ideas this foolish book teaches: that war is stupid and bestial."
"But not a single child from Block Thirty-One! We’re succeeding, Edita. We’re doing it."
"It’s true that he feels proud of what he has achieved: In the whole time Block 31 has existed, not one of the pupils has died."
"Everything will work out well, you’ll see. Trust Miriam. And above all else, you must never give up."
"The atmosphere is so charged that Dita thinks it would be foolish to move the books."
"In the end, the great man has been unable to bear the thought of taking his young charges to certain death. He has decided to depart first."
"The shortest sentences are the most devastating; there’s no chance for a reply."
"They are singing! The male and female prisoners being taken away in the trucks to die are singing!"
"Life, any life, is very short. But if you’ve managed to be happy for at least an instant, it will have been worth living."
"We can’t lose hope. It’s ours. We can’t lose it."
"They can’t remove our hope. It’s ours. We can’t lose it."
"I'm from Auschwitz. Nothing can be worse than that."
"They treat us like lambs being taken to the slaughterhouse."
"I've already repeated it a thousand times! There was nothing we could have done to save his life!"
"I don’t want them to treat me. I just want to consult them about something."
"You shouldn’t worry about that, my dear. It’s God’s design—you have to earn your bread."
"I'm too old, and I'm not strong enough. Or brave enough. I'm an old hen."